The Philippines national disaster agency has announced that Super
Typhoon Haiyan has killed more than 5,200 people. That total makes the
November 8 storm the most deadly natural disaster ever to hit the
country.
Haiyan
killed 5,209 people, injured about 23,500 and displaced 4 million,
officials said Friday, with 1,600 still missing. The storm destroyed
more than 1 million homes.
"It's not impossible that the number will increase, but as to how high
we don't know," Interior Secretary Mar Roxas told reporters on Friday.
"It's very sad, but we can say that we have passed the worst stage in
this tragedy," he added.
Haiyan killed 4,919 in Eastern Visayas. Another 290 died in central and
southern provinces affected by the November 8 typhoon, the national
disaster relief agency announced. One of the strongest typhoons ever
recorded, Haiyan caused more deaths and destruction than a 1991 storm
that killed 5,101 people in flash floods in Ormoc, in the same hard-hit
province of Leyte.
'Fine-tuned plan'
Called Yolanda locally, Haiyan brought winds of over 300 kilometers per
hour (180 mph). The majority of victims either drowned or died under
collapsed structures and trees, as storm surges 6 to 7 meters high
(20-23 feet) swallowed coastal areas of Tacloban on Leyte island, the
commercial, education and government hub of the Eastern Visayas.
Disaster agency officials said the death toll could still increase, with
only about 52 percent of the city of Tacloban cleared of debris.
On Friday, President Benigno Aquino
set up a task force to "hasten the transition of relief efforts into
the full-scale rehabilitation and rebuilding of typhoon-damaged areas,"
said his spokesman, Herminio Coloma. "The president emphasized to the
cabinet that a fine-tuned plan responsive to the specific needs at the
community level is necessary," Coloma added.
Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson said the government had also begun preparations for the construction of bunkhouses using prefabricated buildings "more comfortable" than tents. Singson said the government would make an inventory of public land suitable for use as resettlement sites for survivors whose former communities officials considered dangerously close to the sea and vulnerable to future storms.
"There will probably be areas that will be declared no-build zones
because of the high risk, and we will have to relocate the affected
people to safe ground," Singson said.
mkg/ng (Reuters, dpa, AP)
